Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy

The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy is a radical bird taxonomy

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification. The word comes from the Greek language ', taxis and ', nomos .Taxonomies, or taxonomic schemes, are composed of taxonomic units known as taxa , or kinds of things that are arranged frequently in a hierarchical structure....
proposed by Charles Sibley

Charles Sibley

Charles Gald Sibley was an United States ornithologist and molecular biologist. He had an immense influence on the scientific classification of birds, and the work that Sibley initiated has substantially altered our understanding of the evolutionary history of modern birds....
and Jon Edward Ahlquist

Jon Edward Ahlquist

Jon Edward Ahlquist specialized in molecular phylogenetics and ornithology, collaborating extensively with Charles Sibley, primarily at Yale University....
. It is based on DNA-DNA hybridization studies conducted in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.

DNA-DNA hybridization is among a class of comparative techniques in molecular biology

Molecular biology

Molecular biology is the study of biology at a molecule level. The field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry....
that produce distance data (versus character data) and that can be analyzed to produce phylogenetic reconstructions only using phenetic tree-building algorithms. In DNA-DNA hybridization, the percent similarity of DNA between two species is estimated by the reduction in hydrogen bonding between nucleotides of imperfectly complemented heteroduplex DNA, (i.e., double stranded DNAs that are experimentally produced from single strands of two different species) compared with perfectly matched homoduplex DNA (both strands of DNA from the same species).

This revolutionary reordering was initially widely accepted by North American ornithologists, and the American Ornithologists' Union

American Ornithologists' Union

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy'

Start a new discussion about 'Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy is a radical bird taxonomy

Taxonomy

Charles Sibley

Jon Edward Ahlquist

Molecular biology

American Ornithologists' Union

The American Ornithologists' Union is an ornithology organization in the USA. Unlike the National Audubon Society, its members are primarily professional ornithologists rather than amateur birdwatching....
adopted some of its provisions. In other parts of the world its adoption has been more deliberative: it has been a respected major influence on existing classification schemes but hardly any authority adopted it in its entirety. Today, the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy has fallen out of use; cladistic analyses have questioned its very methodological foundations and most of the proposed major changes (with one notable exception) are today considered to be false.

Characteristics

The classification appears to be cladistic

Cladistics

Cladistics is the hierarchical classification of species based on evolutionary ancestry. Cladistics is distinguished from other taxonomic systems because it focuses on evolution rather than similarities between species, and because it places heavy emphasis on objective, quantitative analysis....
because it codifies many intermediate levels of taxa: the "trunk" of the family tree is the class Aves, which branches into subclasses, which branch into infraclasses, and then "parvclasses", superorders, orders, suborders, infraorders, "parvorders", superfamilies, families, subfamilies, tribes, subtribes and finally genera and species. In fact, the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy is merely a highly structured result of phenetic studies; no cladistic methods were used in producing it. Though the strong subdivision into taxonomic rank

Taxonomic rank

Taxonomic rank, taxonomic category, rank, or category is an abstract term used in the scientific classification, or taxonomy, of organisms....
s suggests accuracy, the "parv"-ranks are simply considered unnecessary as of 15 years later for example.

Basal divergences of modern birds
in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy

Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy

The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy is a radical bird taxonomy proposed by Charles Sibley and Jon Edward Ahlquist. It is based on DNA-DNA hybridization studies conducted in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s....

The resulting arrangement differs greatly from the more traditional approach used in the Clements taxonomy

The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World

The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world.It is currently in its sixth edition , and is being published by Cornell University Press....
. More recently published phylogenetic reconstructions based on cladistic and maximum likelihood analyses of DNA sequences lend credence to some of the DNA-DNA hybridization-based taxonomy, e.g. the recognition of palaeognathous birds as monophyletic and sister to all others, and the recognition that fowl and waterfowl (Galloanserae, initially named "Galloanseri") are one anothers' closest relatives and sister to the remainder of all birds, Neoaves. However, new studies also categorically reject many of the rearrangements in the Sibley-Ahlquist classification, e.g., the all-encompassing order Ciconiiformes

Ciconiiformes

Traditionally, the order Ciconiiformes has included a variety of large, long-legged wading birds with large bills: storks, herons, egrets, ibises, spoonbills, and several others....
, placement of buttonquail

Buttonquail

The buttonquails or hemipodes are a small family of birds which resemble, but are unrelated to, the true quails. They inhabit warm grasslands in Asia, Africa, and Australia....
s at the base of Neoaves, and the monophyly of the Corvida

Corvida

The "Corvida" were one of two "parvorders" contained within the suborder Passeri, as proposed in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy. Standard taxonomic practice would place them at the rank of infraorder....
as well as the Passerae

Passerae

The "Passerae" were a proposed "parvclass" of birds in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy. This taxon is a variation on the theme of "near passerines", birds that were - and often still are - believed to be close relatives of the passerines ....
, to name a few.

Even DNA-DNA hybridization studies produced later on in other laboratories disagree with some of Sibley and Ahlquist's results, e.g., inclusion of the limpkin

Limpkin

The Limpkin , Aramus guarauna, is a bird that looks like a large Rail but is skeletally closer to Crane . It is found mostly in wetlands in warm parts of the Americas, where it feeds primarily on apple snails of the genus Pomacea....
in the sungrebe

Sungrebe

The Sungrebe is a bird which breeds in tropical central America and South America from southern Mexico to northeast Argentina and southern Brazil....
family, and the placement of flamingo

Flamingo

Flamingos or flamingoes are wikt:gregarious wading birds in the genus Phoenicopterus and family Phoenicopteridae. They are found in both the Western Hemisphere and in the Eastern Hemisphere, but are more numerous in the latter....
s near storks rather than next to grebe

Grebe

Grebes are members of the Podicipediformes order , a widely distributed order of freshwater diving Avess, some of which visit the sea when Bird migration and in winter....
s.

The major changes at order level are as follows:

Enlarged Struthioniformes replaces the ratite
Ratite

A ratite is any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of Gondwanan origin, most of them now extinct. Unlike other flightless birds, the ratites have no keel on their sternum - hence their name which comes from the Latin for raft....
orders Rheiformes (rhea
Rhea (bird)

The rheas are species of Flightless bird ratite birds in the genus Rhea, native to South America. There are two existing species: the Greater Rhea and the Darwin's Rhea....
s), Casuariiformes (cassowaries
Cassowary

The cassowary is a very large flightless bird native to the tropical forests of New Guinea and nearby islands, and northeastern Australia. The Southern Cassowary is the third tallest and second heaviest bird on the planet, smaller only than the Ostrich and Emu....
), and Apterygiformes (kiwi
Kiwi

A kiwi is any of the species of flightless birds endemic to New Zealand of the genus Apteryx . At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites....
s) and Struthioniformes (ostrich
Ostrich

The ostrich Struthio camelus is a large flightless bird native to Africa . It is the only living species of its family , Struthionidae, and its genus, Struthio....
es).
Tinamiformes (tinamou
Tinamou

The tinamous are one of the most ancient living groups of bird, members of a South American family....
s) is unchanged.
A new, greatly enlarged Ciconiiformes includes the previous Sphenisciformes (penguin
Penguin

Penguins are a group of Aquatic animal, flightless bird birds living almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershading dark and white plumage, and their wings have become Flipper ....
s), Gaviiformes (divers), Podicipediformes (grebe
Grebe

Grebes are members of the Podicipediformes order , a widely distributed order of freshwater diving Avess, some of which visit the sea when Bird migration and in winter....
s), Procellariiformes (tubenose
Tubenose

Tubenose may refer to:* Birds in the order Procellariiformes.* Fishes in the family Aulorhynchidae....
s), Pelecaniformes (pelican
Pelican

A pelican is a large water bird with a distinctive pouch under the beak, belonging to the bird Family Pelecanidae.Along with the darters, cormorants, gannets, boobys, frigatebirds, and tropicbirds, pelicans make up the order Pelecaniformes....
s and allies), Ciconiiformes (storks and allies), Falconiformes (birds of prey
Bird of prey

Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. Their claws and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....
), Charadriiformes (wader
Wader

Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups....
s, gull
Gull

Gulls are Aves in the family Laridae. They are most closely related to the terns and only distantly related to auks, and skimmers, and more distantly to the waders....
s, tern
Tern

Terns are seabirds in the family Sternidae, previously considered a subfamily of the gull family Laridae . They form a lineage with the gulls and skimmers which in turn is related to skuas and auks....
s, and auk
Auk

Auks are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. They are superficially similar to penguins due to their black-and-white colours, their upright posture and some of their habits....
s), and the family Pteroclidae (sandgrouse
Sandgrouse

The sandgrouse are a family , Pteroclididae, of 16 bird species, the only living members of the order Pteroclidiformes. They are restricted to treeless open country in the Old World, such as plains and semi-deserts....
).
Anseriformes (duck
Duck

Duck is the common name for a number of species in the Anatidae family of birds. The ducks are divided between several subfamilies listed in full in the Anatidae article; they do not represent a clade but a form taxon, being the Anatidae not considered swans and goose....
s and allies) is unchanged.
New Craciformes chachalaca
Chachalaca

Chachalacas are one of the groups of cracidae birds. They all belong into the genus Ortalis. They were formerly united with the similar-looking guan s into a subfamily, but are probably closer to the curassows ....
s etc. Previously Galliformes
New Ralliformes rails and crakes (this was eventually changed back to the traditional inclusion in Gruiformes)
New Gruiformes Crane
Crane (bird)

Cranes are large, long-legged and long-necked birds of the order Gruiformes, and family Gruidae. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back....
s
New Turniciformes button-quails etc. Previously Gruiformes
Columbiformes dove
Dove

Pigeons and doves constitute the family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerine Aves....
s. Sandgrouse moved to Ciconiiformes.
Psittaciformes cockatoo
Cockatoo

A cockatoo is any of the 21 bird species belonging to the family Cacatuidae. Along with the Psittacidae family and the Nestoridae family, they make up the order Psittaciformes....
s and parrot
Parrot

File:Ara ararauna -eating -Wilhelma Zoo-8-2rc.jpgParrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genus that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most warm and tropical regions....
s unchanged
New Musophagiformes turaco
Turaco

The turacos, plantain-eaters and go-away-birds make up the bird family Musophagidae . In southern Africa both turacos and go-away-birds are commonly known as louries....
s. Previously Cuculiformes.
New Cuculiformes rest of cuckoo
Cuckoo

The cuckoos are a family, Cuculidae, of near passerine birds. The order Cuculiformes, in addition to the cuckoos, also includes the turacos ....
s
New Strigiformes owl
Owl

The Strigiformes are an order of bird of prey, comprising 200 species. Most are solitary, and Nocturnal animal, with some exceptions . Owls mostly hunt small mammals, insects, and other birds, though a few species specialize in hunting fish....
s enlarged to include Caprimulgiformes nightjar
Nightjar

Nightjars are medium-sized nocturnal or crepuscular birds with long wings, short legs and very short bills. They are sometimes referred to as goatsuckers from the mistaken belief that they suck milk from goats ....
s
New Apodiformes swift
Swift

The swifts are a family, Apodidae, of highly aerial birds. They are superficially similar to swallows but are actually not closely related to those passerine species at all; swifts are in the separate order Apodiformes, which they share with the hummingbirds....
s
New Trochiliformes hummingbird
Hummingbird

Hummingbirds are birds in the family Trochilidae, and are endemic to the Americas. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 15?200 times per second ....
s. Previously Apodiformes.
Coliiformes mousebird
Mousebird

The mousebirds are a small group of birds which have no real close affinities to other groups, though they and the parrots and cockatoos may be closer to each other than to other birds....
s unchanged
Trogoniformes trogon
Trogon

The trogons and quetzals are birds in the order Trogoniformes which contains only one family, the Trogonidae. They are the only type of animal with a Dactyly#Heterodactyly toe arrangement....
s unchanged
New Coraciiformes roller
Roller

The rollers are an Old World family of near passerine birds, related to the kingfishers and bee-eaters. The group gets its name from the aerial acrobatics some of these birds perform during courtship or territorial flights....
s
New Upupiformes Hoopoe
Hoopoe

The Hoopoe , Upupa epops, is a colourful bird that is found across Afro-Eurasia, notable for its distinctive 'crown' of feathers. It is the only species in the family Upupidae....
, previously Coraciiformes
New Bucerotiformes hornbill
Hornbill

Hornbills are a family of bird found in tropical and sub-tropical Africa and Asia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly-coloured and sometimes has a casque on the upper mandible....
s, previously Coraciiformes
New Galbuliformes jacamar
Jacamar

The jacamars are a family , Galbulidae, of near passerine birds from tropical South America and Central America, extending up to Mexico. The order contains five genus and 18 species....
s and puffbird
Puffbird

The puffbirds and their relatives in the near passerine family Bucconidae are tropical birds breeding from South America up to Mexico.They are related to the jacamars, but lack the iridescent colours of that family....
s, previously Piciformes
Piciformes woodpecker
Woodpecker

Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks....
s
Passeriformes perching birds unchanged.

Some of these changes are minor adjustments. For instance, instead of putting the swifts, treeswifts, and hummingbirds in the same order that includes nothing else, Sibley and Ahlquist put them in the same superorder that includes nothing else, consisting of one order for the hummingbirds and another for the swifts and treeswifts. In other words, they still regard the swifts as the hummingbirds' closest relatives.

Other changes are much more drastic. The penguins were traditionally regarded as distant from all other living birds. For instance, Wetmore put them in a superorder by themselves, with all other non-ratite birds in a different superorder. Sibley and Ahlquist, though, put penguins in the same superfamily as divers (loons), tubenoses, and frigatebird

Frigatebird

The frigatebirds are a family, Fregatidae, of seabirds. There are five species in the single genus Fregata. They are also sometimes called Man of War birds or Pirate birds....
s. According to their view, penguins are closer to those birds than heron

Heron

The herons are wading birds in the Ardeidae family. Some are called egrets or bitterns instead of herons.Within the family, all members of the genera Botaurus and Ixobrychus are referred to as bitterns, and - including the Zigzag Heron or Zigzag Bittern - are a monophyletic group within the Ardeidae....
s are to storks.

The new research suggested that the ducks and gallinaceous birds are each other's closest relatives and together form the basal lineage of neognathous (non-ratite) birds, distinct from the others which are collectively called Neoaves. The ratites and tinamous are followed by the ducks and their allies and the pheasant

Pheasant

Pheasants are a group of large birds in the order Galliformes.Pheasants are characterised by strong sexual dimorphism, with males being highly ornate with bright colours and adornments such as wattle and long tails....
s and their allies. Penguin

Penguin

Penguins are a group of Aquatic animal, flightless bird birds living almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershading dark and white plumage, and their wings have become Flipper ....
s, grebe

Grebe

Grebes are members of the Podicipediformes order , a widely distributed order of freshwater diving Avess, some of which visit the sea when Bird migration and in winter....
s and diver

Diver

Diver can mean:*Someone who practices scuba diving or surface supplied diving*An athlete who practices diving in the sense of jumping or falling deliberately into water....
s are placed with other groups that were traditionally considered more modern.

A more recent paper by van Tuinen, Sibley, and Hedges looked in more detail at the early ancestry of bird groups. The traditional view of avian evolution places ratites and tinamous at the base of the tree of modern birds (Neornithes), followed by old marine groups such as the penguins, grebes and divers.

The Galloanseres (waterfowl and landfowl) have found widespread acceptance and roundabout support. The ancientness was splendidly confirmed with the 2005 report on Vegavis iaai, an essentially modern but most peculiar waterfowl that lived near Cape Horn

Cape Horn

Cape Horn island is the southernmost Headlands and bays of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile.Cape Horn is widely considered to be the most southerly point of South America, and marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage; for many years it was a major milestone on the clipper route, by which sailing ships carried tr...
some 66-68 million years ago, still in the age of the dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of Landform ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic Period until the end of the Cretaceous Period , when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous?Tertiary extinction event....
s.

On the other hand, penguins, grebes, divers, and so on (colloquially sometimes called "higher waterbirds") are still considered very ancient neoavian orders - quite possibly together with the shorebirds (waders) which seem a bit older still, the most ancient ones. The supposed distinctness of the storks and herons as well as at least the supposed degree of closeness of penguins to frigatebirds have been refuted. They, as well as the "Ciconiiformes" assemblage, appear to be due to the shortcomings, both methodological and analytical, of DNA-DNA hybridization.

Today, no major ornithological organization uses the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy anymore. The AOU

American Ornithologists' Union

The American Ornithologists' Union is an ornithology organization in the USA. Unlike the National Audubon Society, its members are primarily professional ornithologists rather than amateur birdwatching....
, starting in the late 1990s, moved away from advocating the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy and today advocates the Howard-Moore taxonomy as baseline. Compared to the main competitor, the Clements taxonomy

The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World

The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world.It is currently in its sixth edition , and is being published by Cornell University Press....
(which at that time was based on simple qualitative analyses of morphology), it can be stated that most of the changes suggested by Sibley and Ahlquist - with the notable exception of the Galloanserae - are erroneous and caused by the flawed methodology.

Classification

Palaeognathae

Ratitae	Struthioniformes	# Struthionidae # Rheidae # Casuariidae Casuariidae The bird family Casuariidae has four surviving members: the three species of cassowary, and the only remaining species of Emu. The emus were formerly classified in their own family, Dromaiidae, but are regarded as sufficiently closely related to the cassowaries to be part of the same family.... # Apterygidae
Ratitae	Tinamiformes	# Tinamidae

Neognathae

Galloanserae

Galloanserae	Gallomorphae	Craciformes	# Cracidae Cracidae The chachalacas, guans and curassows are birds in the Family Cracidae.These are species of tropical and subtropical Central America and South America.... # Megapodiidae
	Gallomorphae	Galliformes Galliformes Galliformes are an order of birds containing turkey , grouse, chickens, quails, and pheasants. More than 250 living species are found worldwide....	# Phasianidae Phasianidae The Phasianidae is a family of birds which consists of the pheasants and partridges, and including the junglefowl , Old World quail, francolins, monals and peafowl.... # Numididae # Odontophoridae
	Anserimorphae	Anseriformes Anseriformes The order Anseriformes contains about 150 living species of birds in three extant families: the Anhimidae , Anseranatidae , and the Anatidae, which includes over 140 species of waterfowl, among them the ducks, goose, and swans....	# Anhimidae # Anseranatidae # Dendrocygnidae # Anatidae Anatidae Anatidae is the biological family that includes the ducks, goose and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica and on most of the world's islands and island groups....

Turnicae

Turnicae	Turniciformes	# Turnicidae

Picae

Picae	Piciformes Piciformes Six family of largely arboreal birds make up the Order Piciformes, the best-known of them being the Picidae, which includes the woodpeckers and close relatives....	# Indicatoridae # Picidae Picidae The woodpeckers, piculets and wrynecks are a Family , Picidae, of near-passerine birds. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia and New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions.... # Megalaimidae Megalaimidae A family of birds comprising the Asian barbets, the Megalaimidae were once united with all other barbets in the Capitonidae but they have turned out to be distinct.... # Lybiidae Lybiidae The Lybiidae is a bird family containing the African barbets. They were usually united with their South American and Asian relatives in the Capitonidae for quite some time, but this has been confirmed to be limited to the main South American lineage.... # Ramphastidae

Coraciae

Coraciae	Galbulimorphae	Galbuliformes Galbuliformes An Order of birds comprising the jacamar and puffbird families, Galbulidae and Bucconidae. there are 51 species ranging from Mexico to tropical South America....	# Galbulidae # Bucconidae
	Bucerotimorphae	Bucerotiformes	# Bucerotidae # Bucorvidae
	Bucerotimorphae	Upupiformes	# Upupidae # Phoeniculidae # Rhinopomastidae
	Coraciimorphae	Trogoniformes	# Trogonidae
	Coraciimorphae	Coraciiformes Coraciiformes The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colourful near passerine birds including the kingfishers, the Hoopoe, the bee-eaters, the rollers, and the hornbills....	# Coraciidae # Brachypteraciidae # Leptosomidae # Momotidae # Todidae # Alcedinidae # Halcyonidae # Cerylidae # Meropidae

Coliae

Coliae	Coliiformes	# Coliidae

Passerae

Passerae Passerae The "Passerae" were a proposed "parvclass" of birds in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy. This taxon is a variation on the theme of "near passerines", birds that were - and often still are - believed to be close relatives of the passerines ....	Cuculimorphae	Cuculiformes Cuculiformes The near passerine bird order Cuculiformes traditionally included three families as below:* Musophagidae - turacos and allies* Cuculidae - cuckoos, coucals and anis...	# Cuculidae # Centropodidae # Coccyzidae Coccyzidae Coccyzidae is a family of birds comprising 18 new world cuckoos, ranging from Canada to Argentina. The family was split from the cuckoo family Cuculidae after considering DNA evidence.... # Opisthocomidae # Crotophagidae Crotophagidae The anis are a small family of gregarious birds occurring in the Americas. They are part of the cuckoo order Cuculiformes and sometimes placed as a subfamily Crotophaginae within the cuckoo family Cuculidae.... # Neomorphidae Neomorphidae Neomorphidae is a proposed family of birds, separating the ground cuckoos from the rest of the cuckoo family. It is traditionally nested within the family Cuculidae as the subfamily Neomorphinae....
	Psittacimorphae	Psittaciformes	# Psittacidae
	Apodimorphae	Apodiformes Apodiformes Traditionally, the bird order Apodiformes contained three living families: the swifts, Apodidae, the tree swifts, Hemiprocnidae, and the hummingbirds, Trochilidae....	# Apodidae # Hemiprocnidae
	Apodimorphae	Trochiliformes	# Trochilidae
	Strigimorphae	Musophagiformes	# Musophagidae
	Strigimorphae	Strigiformes	# Tytonidae Tytonidae Barn-owls are one of the two family of owls, the other being the typical owls, Strigidae. They are medium to large sized owls with large heads and characteristic heart-shaped faces.... # Strigidae # Aegothelidae # Podargidae # Batrachostomidae # Steatornithidae # Nyctibiidae # Eurostopodidae Eurostopodidae The Eared-nightjars are a small family of birds related to nightjars. There are seven species, mainly found in forest and scrubland from China to Australia.... # Caprimulgidae
	Passerimorphae	Columbiformes Columbiformes The bird order Columbiformes includes the very widespread and successful doves and pigeons, classified in the family Columbidae, and the extinct Dodo and the Rodrigues Solitaire, long classified as a second family Raphidae....	# Raphidae Raphidae The Raphinae are a subfamily of extinct flightless birds colloquially called didines or didine birds. They inhabited the Mascarene Islands of Mauritius and Rodrigues , but became extinct through hunting by humans and predation by introduced non-native mammals following human colonisation in the 1600s.... # Columbidae
		Gruiformes Gruiformes The polyphyletic order Gruiformes contains a considerable number of living and extinct bird family with little in common. They are morphologically diverse and geographically widespread....	# Eurypygidae # Otididae # Gruidae # Aramidae # Heliornithidae Heliornithidae The Heliornithidae are a small family of tropical birds with webbed lobes on their feet like those of grebes and coots. The family overall are known as finfoots, although one species is known as a Sungrebe.... # Psophiidae # Cariamidae # Rhynochetidae # Rallidae Rallidae The rails, or Rallidae, are a large Cosmopolitan distribution family of small to medium-sized birds. The family exhibits considerable Biodiversity and the family also includes the crakes, coots, and gallinules.... # Mesitornithidae
		Ciconiiformes Ciconiiformes Traditionally, the order Ciconiiformes has included a variety of large, long-legged wading birds with large bills: storks, herons, egrets, ibises, spoonbills, and several others....	# Pteroclidae # Thinocoridae # Pedionomidae # Scolopacidae Scolopacidae The Scolopacidae are a large family of waders, . Many of the smaller species are often called "sandpipers", especially members of genera Calidris, Tringa and Actitis.... # Rostratulidae # Jacanidae # Chionidae # Pluvianellidae # Burhinidae # Charadriidae Charadriidae The bird family Charadriidae includes the plovers, dotterels, and lapwings, about 64 to 66 species in all. They are small to medium-sized birds with compact bodies, short, thick necks and long, usually pointed, wings.... # Glareolidae Glareolidae Glareolidae is a family of birds in the wader suborder Charadri. It contains two distinct groups:The pratincoles: these have short legs, long pointed wings and long forked tails.... # Laridae # Accipitridae Accipitridae The Accipitridae* is one of the two major family within the order Accipitriformes . Many well-known birds, such as hawks, eagles, kite , harrier and Old World vultures are included in this group.... # Sagittariidae # Falconidae Falconidae The falcons and caracaras are around 60 species of diurnal birds of prey that comprise the family Falconidae. The family is divided into two subfamiles, Polyborinae, which includes the caracaras and forest falcons, and Falconinae, the falcons, kestrels and falconets.... # Podicipedidae # Phaethontidae # Sulidae Sulidae The bird family Sulidae comprises the gannets and booby. Both groups are medium-large coastal seabirds that plunge-dive for fish. The species in this family are often considered congeneric, placing all in the genus Sula.... # Anhingidae # Phalacrocoracidae # Ardeidae # Scopidae # Phoenicopteridae # Threskiornithidae Threskiornithidae The family Threskiornithidae includes 36 species of large terrestrial and wading birds, falling into two subfamilies, the ibises and the spoonbills.... # Pelecanidae # Ciconiidae # Fregatidae # Spheniscidae # Gaviidae # Procellariidae Procellariidae The family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the prion , and the shearwaters. This family is part of the bird order Procellariiformes , which also includes the albatrosses, the storm-petrels, and the diving petrels....
		Passeriformes	# Acanthisittidae # Pittidae # Eurylaimidae # Philepittidae # Tyrannidae # Thamnophilidae # Furnariidae # Formicariidae Formicariidae The Formicariidae, formicariids, or ground antbirds are a Family of smallish passerine birds of subtropical and tropical Central America and South America.... # Conopophagidae # Rhinocryptidae # Climacteridae # Menuridae # Ptilonorhynchidae # Maluridae Maluridae The Maluridae are a family of small, insectivorous passerine birds endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Commonly known as wrens, they are unrelated to the wren of the Northern Hemisphere.... # Meliphagidae # Pardalotidae # Petroicidae Petroicidae The bird Family Petroicidae includes roughly 45 species in about 15 genera. All are endemic to Australasia or nearby areas. For want of a more accurate common name, the family is often described as the Australasian robins: it extends beyond Australasia, however, and includes not just robins but the Jacky Winter, the New Zealand Tomtit,... # Irenidae # Orthonychidae Orthonychidae The Orthonychidae is a family of birds with a single genus, *Orthonyx, which comprises three species of passerine birds Endemic to Australia and New Guinea, the Logrunners and the Chowchilla.... # Pomatostomidae # Laniidae # Vireonidae # Corvidae Corvidae Corvidae* is a Cosmopolitan distribution family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rook s, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, Pyrrhocorax and nutcracker .... # Callaeatidae # Picathartidae # Bombycillidae # Cinclidae # Muscicapidae # Sturnidae # Sittidae Sittidae Sittidae is a family of small passerine birds which has two subfamilies:Sittinidae, which contains the single genus nuthatch* containing about 24 species of nuthatches, which are found across Eurasia and North America.... # Certhiidae # Paridae # Aegithalidae # Hirundinidae # Regulidae # Pycnonotidae # Hypocoliidae # Cisticolidae Cisticolidae The Cisticolidae family of small passerine birds is a group of about 110 warblers found mainly in warmer southern regions of the Old World. They are often included within the Old World warbler family Sylviidae.... # Zosteropidae # Sylviidae # Alaudidae # Nectariniidae # Melanocharitidae Melanocharitidae The Melanocharitidae, the berrypeckers and longbills, is a small bird family restricted to the forests of New Guinea. The family was once placed inside the Flowerpecker family Dicaeidae, and the longbills were once considered to be honeyeaters .... # Paramythiidae Paramythiidae The painted berrypeckers, Paramythiidae, are a very small bird family restricted to the mountain forests of New Guinea. The family comprises two species in two genus: the Tit Berrypecker and the Crested Berrypecker .... # Passeridae # Fringillidae

Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy

Characteristics

Classification

Palaeognathae

Neognathae

Galloanserae

Turnicae

Picae

Coraciae

Coliae

Passerae

See also